Marvel comics

[Colin YNWA]

I really enjoyed the Milligan / Allred X-Force and X-Statix that were out a few years ago. You can probably pick them up for pence now.

Yes you can indeed. I picked them up off eBay and a couple of comic marts and don't think I'd have paid much more than 75p for any of them. And what a delight they are.

That said generally I'm really really moving away from Marvel. They seem a bit... well... smug and self satisfied. This 'Embrace Change' schennigan may well be the end of my Marvel days (well Daredevil trades and Captain Britain aside) for a while at least. I'll give it a chance but I'm worried it seems really forced and empty as a concept. Marvel seem so delighted in their bold world changing Universe redefining events that they're loosing sight of what some people look for in there comics. Good old sun superhero stories.

Mind that said given the sales they appear to rake in like they could care what a few people like me think!

Still find myself much more attracted to DC Universe for my superhero fun these days. Nowt like bucking the trend huh!

[the shutdown man]

Be aware you'll miss the Furth end-stories if you go for the collected version, (which might not be a bad thing if you don't like them. My views on them are varied, i.e. some I like, some I don't).  

I wouldn't be surprised if they brought out a separate collection for them eventually though.

On a slightly Marvel Dark Tower related note, I only found out last week there's a Stand comic book coming out (or possibly already out, I'm way out of touch). The first book is called The Stand: Captain Trips and some of the artwork they showed on the Marvel site looked fantastic, particularly of Flagg.

[Ignatzmonster]

**This 'Embrace Change' schennigan may well be the end of my Marvel days **

Yeah, they can embrace my ball-sack. Everytime I'm enjoying one of their comics their bloody crossovers bleed into it and ruin a perfectly good storyline. I'm in it for the writer and artist not the continuity. The mere fact that so many of my countrymen are "embracing" this endless stream of crossover nonsense makes me think we have more marks in this country than hot meals.

Still, Criminal is a GREAT COMIC and untouched by their virulent mucking about. Guardians of the Galaxy is good (until they ruin it), Iron Fist, She-Hulk, were excellent (till they were ruined).

[Dandontdare]

That said generally I'm really really moving away from Marvel.

Still find myself much more attracted to DC Universe for my superhero fun these days.

On reflection I've kind of swung bewteen the two over the years. For long years I was marvel only - superman and batman were just...too silly.

Post-Dark Knight returns, I went all DC, and back and forth since.

I'm on the opposite track to you though - it's Make Mine Marvel these days. I felt totally cheated and let down after buying all the DC Infinite Crisis stuff last year ('Identity Crisis was so good, but the 'countdown' got shittier as it went along). Should've been called Crisis - part 2 of 3 anyway. Now this year my pennies have all gone on the civil war/avengers/hulk stuff - true there's been some polished turds amongst that (thunderbolts!) but I still don't fancy DC much.

As you'll see, I'm not one of those gotta-have-it-as-soon-as-it-comes-out kinda guys - I'm currently waiting for secret invasion to get collected - was it worth it anyone?

Yeah, they can embrace my ball-sack.

I'm trying not to think about the latest spiderman fiasco, but the whole iron man/avengers thing was a surprise to me- I was way out of touch.

And then there's the whole 'Ultimate' alternatives.....

[SmallBlueThing]

I'm trying not to think about the latest spiderman fiasco

I dunno- I'm a hundred per cent behind the One More Day/ Brand New Day run. Spidey has always been, to a large degree about wish-fulfillment for me- and shaving twenty years off your life, going back to a time before you were married, etc etc, seems like a continuation of that idea.

But don't tell my wife I said that.

Steev

[SmallBlueThing]

Having said that though- this has just been thrown at me:

Spider-Man writer Marc Guggenheim on Spider-Man: Brand New Day."Here's my attitude, if anyone is upset about the marriage going away, then they must all be pro gay marriage... "Because if you're pro gay marriage, you understand the distinction between a marriage and a civil union -- that a civil union is not equal to a marriage. We downgraded Mary Jane and Peter to a civil union. If that bothers you, then you're pro gay marriage."

Eep. Looks like Hitler's writing Spidey! Time to bail!

Steev

[House of Usher]

"Here's my attitude, if anyone is upset about the marriage going away, then they must all be pro gay marriage... "Because if you're pro gay marriage, you understand the distinction between a marriage and a civil union -- that a civil union is not equal to a marriage. We downgraded Mary Jane and Peter to a civil union. If that bothers you, then you're pro gay marriage."

I don't understand what Marc Guggenheim is going on about. This argument has more than a whiff of sophistry about it. Is he not rather trying to bait the conservative anti-gay marriage lobby? His main dig seems to be at people who want Spider-man and Mary Jane to be married, whereas now they're not. Reading between the lines it would appear that as far as Marc Guggenheim is concerned, there's not much difference between marriage and cohabitation, and the only people who would give a hoot are conservatives who want to keep the distinction between marriage and civil union, because they think marriage is 'better', which serves to de-legitimize gay relationships in their view. Maybe he's having a dig at conservatives who disapprove of comic book characters living in sin (or comic book guys who hate to see years of continuity undone) by invoking gay marriage because that's an even greater horror of the former group than unmarried carnal relations of a heterosexual nature. Effectively saying: "You think Peter Parker and Mary Jane should be married, not cohabiting; therefore you think that gay couples should be allowed to marry because that's better than a civil union; therefore U R teh ghey." If that's Marc Guggenheim's argument, it doesn't sound like a very grown-up one, and it's logically flawed. But like I say, I don't know what Guggenheim's going on about; I'm just offering an interpretation. But I'd stop short of saying he's Hitler!

[Ignatzmonster]

**"Because if you're pro gay marriage, you understand the distinction between a marriage and a civil union -- that a civil union is not equal to a marriage. We downgraded Mary Jane and Peter to a civil union. If that bothers you, then you're pro gay marriage." **

WTF!? So that's what a square peg hitting the sides of a round hole sounds like. It's not often when the idea to communicate clashes so thouroughly with the thing to which it's being compared. Like someone lit a metaphor on fire and you could hear the screams. Unique.

Thanks for unpacking that for me House of Ush, my brain would have froze up from the effort.

[judda fett]

Marvel Zombies is good fun (original series). Great covers by Arthur Suydam reminiscant of those 'team' pics that used to adorn the inside covers of old British Marvel annuals from the 70's and 80's.

[The Legendary Shark]

Just saw this advertised on tv:

The Official Marvel Graphic Novels Collection



I don't really know much about Marvel comics, so I've put in a tentative order with my local thrill merchant to give these a go.

[James Stacey]

hmm £20 a month and £600 for the set. Nice must have for the marvel fanbois but there would be too much in there I'd never want to read I guess.

[Dandontdare]

hmm £20 a month and £600 for the set. Nice must have for the marvel fanbois but there would be too much in there I'd never want to read I guess.

...and a marvel fanboy is likely to own much of it anyway. Seems very steep for some pretty matching spines. More like one for the obsessive completist with more money than sense. How can you commit to a multi-part collection (doesn't seem to state exactly how many, but looks like around 30ish) without knowing what's going to be in it? If they turn out to be decidedly non-classic fillers after a while, would you want to miss some out and leave a gap in that nice spine-image?

It'sclever marketing right enough, but a poor deal for the fan IMHO.

[Emperor]

On the recommendations front...

There is now an Ultimate Collection of Morrison's New X-Men run, well worth picking up:

www.amazon.co.uk/X-Men-Grant-Morrison-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785132511/
www.amazon.co.uk/X-Men-Grant-Morrison-Ultimate-Collection/dp/078513252X/
www.amazon.co.uk/X-Men-Grant-Morrison-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785132538/

Although it ran out of steam and subsequent stories have tried to undermine it to some degree the ideas and feel continued in Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men, a good continuity-light take on the team (Warren Ellis took over and kept the same spirit rolling, in his own way):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astonishing_X-Men#Volume_three_.282004.E2.80.93present.29

The hardcover of Morrison's Marvel Boy reboot is lovely too - it is jam-packed with both wild ideas and he was experimenting with how comics work. Granted it didn't always succeed on every level, but the real problem is that no one ever picked up his baton and ran with it, instead the character has been ground down to a dull stub:

www.amazon.co.uk/Marvel-Boy-Premiere-HC-Knights/dp/0785134409/

You should also give DnA's Marvel Cosmic work a spin, start at Annihilation which rebooted/reworked everything.

Warren Ellis' run on Thunderbolts  is good stuff and also now has an Ultimate collection (as mentioned in another thread):

www.amazon.co.uk/Thunderbolts-Warren-Deodato-Ultimate-Collection/dp/0785158499/

It's not exactly the Thunderbolts as they've appeared before but if you want the classic vibe then Jeff Parker and Kev Walker/Declan Shalvey have returned to that whole redemption aspect and are writing one of the best team books at the Big Two.

I also hear good things about Uncanny X-Force and will be giving that a go in the New Year. Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four is playing with big mad sci-fi themes so could be worth a look.

Just saw this advertised on tv:

The Official Marvel Graphic Novels Collection



I don't really know much about Marvel comics, so I've put in a tentative order with my local thrill merchant to give these a go.

I think this did the rounds earlier in the year - it suffers the same problems of all partworks (wtih some notable exceptions) in that you might not get value for money and you could end up with stuff you don't want. However, it does seems a classic collection with the Dark Phoenix Saga and Iron Man: Extremis (which was an influence on the films) which are more expensive to buy. It all depends on what the full list is as it could be a sweet deal but too many ringers thrown in there could spoil that. I'd also be interested to know how far back these collections go, as you might want to spend the money on some of the excellent big phonebooks in the Marvel Essentials series to get the classics like early Fantastic Four, Thor, etc. (the B&W print and bogroll paper is not a problem for those of us who grew up reading Marvel through the Marvel UK reprints) and Kirby's Eternals has got a 2 volume paperback release (although I'm keeping the Omnibus hardcover locked away here as it is a thing of beauty):

www.amazon.co.uk/Eternals-Jack-Kirby-Book-TPB/dp/0785133135/
www.amazon.co.uk/Eternals-Jack-Kirby-Book-TPB/dp/0785134425/

You might be better looking up the recommendations in the thread (or asking for ones that fit your tastes) and shopping around for cheap trades.

[SmallBlueThing]

Ive not yet seen the tv advert, and am nowhere near a computer to look it up, but it strikes me as somewhat amazing and quite brilliant that they're doing a partwork that's entirely about the ACTUAL, PROPER COMICS and not yet more statues, tv/movie tie-ins, 'guidebooks' or whatnot. I'd be completely behind this if i didnt already have far too many marvel trades and far too little cash. And if there wasnt the Disney connection.

SBT

[Mattofthespurs]

Ive not yet seen the tv advert, and am nowhere near a computer to look it up, but it strikes me as somewhat amazing and quite brilliant that they're doing a partwork that's entirely about the ACTUAL, PROPER COMICS and not yet more statues, tv/movie tie-ins, 'guidebooks' or whatnot. I'd be completely behind this if i didnt already have far too many marvel trades and far too little cash. And if there wasnt the Disney connection.

SBT

This. I'm getting it.